Word-of-Mouth is “gold nugget” to choosing health care

One of the more interesting questions/discussions we had at the November CEOtoCEO Breakfast was in regard to choosing your health care professionals. I have to admit, this was a surprise to me and I don’t think I was alone.

A part of the discussion was around “distance to your doctor” or hospital. It was pretty common that most chose this because of location, not because of the hospital – at least the location was the primary driver. This makes intuitive sense to me and it did to the other CEOs in the room. However, what surprised me was how people choose their doctors.

Most people at the breakfast reported choosing health care professional via WORD-OF-MOUTH. That is not a typo – this was the primary way physicians were chosen. Not based on their credentials, not based on education and not based on the hospital where they practice. No, it was what others have to say about them.

Does any of this sound familiar? Does your business operate in pretty much the same way? This is directly linked to how most people choose other professionals – based on what others say about you. So when we think of the medical field, there are some really scary similarities to how other businesses are run as well – something to think about…

Many in the group asked to be sent the link to the Premium Designation site which provides some background on methodology used to evaluate providers as well as the ability to look up providers by a number of attributes specialty, location, language etc. Investigate this site if you would like more “facts” in addition to the “word-of-mouth” you are already getting.

CEOs and Health Insurance cost management

When I decided to schedule David Hansen, CEO of United Healthcare, to be a speaker at the CEOtoCEO breakfast in November I knew we would get a lot of questions from CEOs about better ways to manage health insurance costs. We weren’t disappointed.

This has been a topic I hear about all the time when meeting with CEOs and so we decided to hit it head on in our breakfast series. In the beginning, I was concerned that David might get barraged by all kinds of politically charged questions – especially with all the talk about Obama’s Health Care Reform campaign. To my surprise, this wasn’t the hot topic.

The hot topic was about what a CEO can do to better manage health care costs. Having the right questions is essential to determining the right answers. David posed five questions that leaders should answer which will lead to better-cost management strategies.

1. Who makes decisions in choosing your benefits and communication strategy and are they asking the right questions?
2. Do I have the best broker and are they asking how we can actively manage healthcare costs?
3. Do I have a 3 – 5 year written strategic plan to manage my healthcare costs?
4. Your company’s historical claims experience is considered in future premium increases in Washington – both self funded and fully insured premiums are impacted!
5. Do I have an incentive based system that rewards employees and dependent families for choosing the best physicians, leading healthy lifestyles, and managing their/our healthcare costs?

What costs more – Five Star Hotel or Hospital?

Last week we had a great opportunity to learn the “ins” and “outs” of health care costs from an expert in the area. David Hansen, CEO of United Healthcare was our featured speaker and had everyone captivated by the presentation and discussion. His opening question set the tone for the event – what does it cost to stay at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle for a day and for a day in a local hospital?

As you can imagine, the answers were all over the board. We had a number of people in attendance that were also very connected to the healthcare arena as well and the answers were still very diverse. This was just one of the many interesting discussion points.

So to answer the question, most agreed that the Fairmont would cost around $400 a night and the range was pretty close from all those who contributed. However, the answers for the day in a hospital ranged from $3,500 to $12,000. The amazing part – they were all CORRECT! Depending on the location, it can be anywhere in that range. The question isn’t “do your employees know where the closest hospital is located?” Of course they do. The real question is “do they know where the most affordable hospitals are located? That is the key question.

If you weren’t able to attend this interesting and controversial session, check out my next few postings for some additional details you might find interesting.

Improving team productivity and morale in challenging times

Coming up at our CEOtoCEO Breakfast the beginning of 2010 we have a special guest - Jack Zduriencik (zur-EN-sik). Jack was named the General Manager of the Seattle Mariners on Oct. 22, 2008.

He will share some of his experiences from being in the role just a few months. In his first few months on the job, he re-organized the Mariners Baseball Operations, Scouting and Player Development staffs, and has added talent to both the Major League and minor league rosters. In his first year with the Mariners, he helped build the most improved team in baseball, turning a 101-loss team into an 85-77 team in 2009.

Jack will be sharing his secrets of success from the 2009 season and his plans for improving the Mariners in 2010 season at our January 27th CEOtoCEO Breakfast. Keep an eye on my blog for more information….

How to reduce your Health Care spending

One of the biggest issues I hear about in my interactions with CEOs and Business Owners is “What can I do to reduce my health care costs?” Since one of the main purposes of the CEOtoCEO breakfasts is to bring relevant topics to help businesses run better, I thought we should tackle this subject head on.

In doing so, I have invited David Hansen, the CEO of United Health Care for the Northwest Region to come speak at our next breakfast on November 18th. If you have any interest at all in reducing your health care spending, I would encourage you to come listen to David and see what advice he has to offer you.

I know one area he is going to discuss is a new online resource that is helping businesses of all sizes improve health outcomes and reduce costs by enabling employees to identify and access medical care at the best performing physicians and hospitals. Hopefully he will also discuss so-called "premium designation" resources and other strategies to improve health care outcomes and reduce costs. Being in the industry for over two decades, David has some great perspectives.

I hope you get a chance to meet him on Wednesday. If you don’t and you would like to ask him a question, you can leave a comment below and we can get your questions answered.

"Strategic Map" keeps teams focused

I recently talked about how great a place Clark Nuber, PS was to work for how they have been recognized in a number of ways for this accomplishment. But what makes a firm a great place to work for and what is it that causes employees to enjoy the company? This is often a question I get asked when I am consulting with other organizations so I thought I would ask Dave Katri, President and CEO of Clark Nuber what his “secret sauce” is to achieving this result.

Dave, being the open and sharing person he is, gave me one of the key ingredients to their success – a “strategic map”. This map allows Clark Nuber to achieve superior operating performance while creating organizational balance. As you can see from this map, it is very detailed and also very focused on what makes an organization really work. There is a solid emphasis on Core Values and People as the primary elements at the beginning of the map – that says a lot right there where their focus lies.

The other two areas, Vision/Mission and Strategic Choices are pretty standard in most strategic plans or maps so they need to be included. To me the magic is in the “placement” of these items. Having your Core Values and People in front of the Vision says something much different than the other way around.

After attending one of our CEOtoCEO sessions, Randy Gardiner, CEO of Red Dot Corporation took a copy of the Clark Nuber “strategic map” from the breakfast and created one for his organization. I have yet to see it but I’m sure I will get a chance to share it with you at some point in the future. Do you have a “strategic map” and if so, does it look something like this one? Let me know…

Clark Nuber - A great local firm

I just wanted to give a special thanks to Dave Katri, President and CEO of Clark Nuber P.S. for taking time to share some great insights with us at our CEOtoCEO breakfast in July. He had some great insights, observations and stories to share with us.

One area that I wanted to personally congratulate Dave on is how they have been consistently recognized as one of the best places to work in the area. For example, I didn’t realize, until hearing Dave share his story, how many awards they have won. These awards range from “Best Company” awards to “Innovation” and “Best Places to Work” type awards. They have obviously done a great job under Dave’s reign as the leader of this Bellevue accounting and consulting firm.

• I thought I would take a minute and just share with you some of the awards they have received:
• Inside Public Accounting “Best of Best Award”
• Seattle Business Magazine “Best Company”
• Washington CEO Magazine “Best Company”
• Society of Human Resource Management “Top 25 Small Companies in the Nation”
• Practical Accounting “Practice Innovation Award”
• Bellevue Chamber “Eastside Business of the Year”
• Leading Edge Alliance “Innovative Firm of the Year”

Well done!! Thanks again for sharing some of your “secrets to success”.